Air-cooling apparatus



A ril 22 1924. 1,491,443

H. M. TOOMBS AIR COOLING APPARATUS Filed Nov. 14 1921 Patented Apr. 22,1924.

HAROLD M. TOOMBS, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO MORRIS & COMPANY, ACORPORATION OF MAINE.

AIR-COOLING APPARATUS.

Application filed November 14, 1921.

T 0 all "whom it may 0011 ccrn Be it known that I. Hxuorn M. Tooues,citizen of the United States. residing at Chicago, in the county of Cookand State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin an Air-Cooling Apparatus; and I do hereby declare the following to bea full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as willenable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and usethe same.

My invention relates to means for cooling cold storage rooms or thelike, and in some of its general aspects aims to provide means foreffectively employing a cooling liquid (such as brine) for cooling airwithin such a room and for adequately circulating the cooled air throughthe room. Furthermore, it aims to provide a simple inexpensive andhighly elficient arrangement for this purpose which can easily beerected in a cold storage room without requiring any changes in theconstruction of the building. and one which can readily be installed inunits corresponding in grouping and number to the size of the room andthe needed amount of cooling.

In securing the required low temperature in chilling rooms such as thoseof packing houses, it has long been customary to employ sprays of brine(suitably chilled by an ice machine or the like) for cooling the air ina loft above the chilling room, and to have this air circulatedownwardly through the chilling room. This plan has the seriousobjection that it requires a large amount of loft space. It has alsobeen customary to some extent to install a brine spraying equipment in alaterally adjacent room or chamber from which the cooled air iscirculated through wall openings into the. chilling room. This alsorequires a corresponding special room construction and has theadditional and serious disadvantage that the chilled air will onlytravel laterally to a limited extent across the chilling room. thereforelimiting the effective cooling to rooms of relatively small dimensions.

My present invention aims to overcome all of these objections to thearrangen'ients now in common use by providing .an equipment which canreadily be installed in an ordinary chilling or cold storage roomwithout making any changes whatever in the construction of the room orof the build- Serial No. 514,938.

ing in general, and which also can readily be installed for effectiveuse in rooms of any desired slze or shape. Further and more detailedobjects will appear from the following specification and from theaccompanying drawings, in which1 Fig. l is a fragmentary elevation of aseries of air cooling units embodying my invention and installed in thetype of room commonly used for chilling beef or the like, a wall portionof one part being broken away to show one arrangement of the brinespraying nozzles.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary section taken transversely of Fig. 1 along'thecorrespondingly numbered line and also showing how the illustrated unitcan be installed between two rows of beef sides.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged horizontal section on the line 33 of Fig. 2through the trough and the lower end of the hopper of the unit of Figs.1 and 2.

Fig. 4 is a reduced plan view of. a chilling room similar to that ofFigs. 1 and 2, showing a desirable arrangement of my cooling equipmentin large rooms.

Fig. 5 is an enlargement of a portion of Fig. 2. showing how the hoppersections are secured to each other.

Fig. 6 is an enlargement of'another portion of the same figure. showingthe disposition of the guard rail and air deflector with respect to thehopper and the brine trough.

In the immediate commercial application, my invention is particularlysuitable for use in the chilling and cold storage rooms of packinghouses and I am therefore describing the same in such an application,although I do not wish to be limited to its employment for theseparticular purposes. In the embodiment of the drawings, the: coolingequipment of my invention is constructed in units which can readily beinstalled in an ordinary room in any desired grouping. Each of theseunits consists primarily of a vertical hopper having a spray of brinedischarged downwardly into the same, a brine discharging trough.underhanging the. bottom of the hopper, and deflectors extending at eachside of the hopper above and beyond the side edges of'tlie brine troughfor laterally deflecting the cooled air. In practice. each hopper 1 isdesirably composed of a number of vertically superposed creases in widthtowards its lower end. This 'spray of brine (which spray lower endextends for a considerable distance downwardly into a brine trough 4which empties into a discharge pipe 5 through a strainer 6, the pipe 5being the return duct for a brine supply system cooled by an ordinaryice machine. Freshly cooled brine is supplied through a pipe 7 to ahorizontal spray pipe 8 disposed within the hopper somewhat below thetop thereof and carrying a series of spray nozzles 9, these nozzlesbeing desirably designed for allot-ding a downwardly directed flaring orangular spray of the brine.

Above the sides of the brine trough 4 at each side of the hopper aredeflectors 10, each of which desirably extends from the adjacent side ofthe hopper for some distance outward beyond the side of the brinetrough, and each of which desirably slopes upward from the brine troughand then continues substantially horizontally, somewhat after the mannershown in Fig. 2.

The sides of the brine trough and the air deflectors are so positionedthat the resulting outlet for the air drawn downwardly through thehopper by the cooling action of the spray is disposed at a considerabledistance above the floor of the room, thus permitting the emitted air tosink by gravity while traveling laterally of the room substantially asindicated at A in Fig. 2. Likewise, the top of the hopper is desirablyat some distance below the ceiling of the room and may even be below thetop of the beef sides or the like which are to be cooled, thuspermitting the circulated air to be returned along downwardlyterminating paths such as shown at B in Fig. 2.

In operation, the downward spraying of the brine into the hopper carriesair downwardly with it, thus producing a suction at the top of thehopper which will cause a continuous downward circulation of air throughthe same. At the same time, the flaring of the spray towards the sidesof the hopper restricts the effective air passage through the same andhence increases the velocity of the air after the latter has entered thetop of the hopper. This increase in velocity causes the air tointermingle all the more thoroughl with the esirably is quite fine ormisty in form) so that the air loses its heat to the brine and becomeschilled while warming the brine. Then, as the continued forcing of theair downwardly through the hopper forces the air upward between thelower end of the hopper and the sides of the brine trough, the airissuing at each side of the lower end of the hopper is deflected by thedeflector 10 so as to cause it to travel laterally of the room withsutlicient velocity to carry it for a considerable distance. In doingso, it is gradually warmed, and in practice divides in a large number ofportions circulating upward and gradually uniting to form the fresh anddownwardly directed supply of air through the hopper, as partlyindicated by the arrows on the dotted lines of Fig. 2.

To reduce the cost of manufacture, the hoppers are desirably built inconvenient lengths and grouped lengthwise of one another in rows, withthe hoppers in each row depending into a single brine trough after themanner indicated in Fig. 1. By installing a number of such rows ofcooling units in a room, I can readily secure the chilling effectrequired for a room of any size regardless of the dimensions thereof.That is to say, I merely need to space the rows of cooling units so thatthe lateral air circulation from each row will be ample for the sectionof the room of which this row forms substantially the central line, asfor example the sections into which the room of gig. 4.- is divided bythe dotted lines of that gure. 1

Moreover, such an installation can readily be made right in the ordinarychilling room as now employed in packing houses or the like. Forexample, Fig. 2 shows a part of such an installation as made in a beefchilling room where the cooling units can readily be installed in thespace ordinarily provided between the rails or tracks from which therows of beef sides are suspended. In such a case, it is desirable thatthe beef should not be swung directly against any part of the coolingunit, as this might damage the same. I therefore preferably guardagainst such a damaging by providing guard rails 13 at opposite sides ofthe hopper, these guard rails being suitably fastened to walls, columnsor other rigid portions of the building, such as the column ll ofFig. 1. I also desirably support each hopper independently of the brinetrough so as to leave the entire space between the lower portion of thehopper and the sides of the brine trough clear for the unhamperedemission of the cooled air. For example, the drawings show each hopperas suspended by straps 15 from the ceiling joists 16, and show the brinetrough as supported by steel straps 17 bent to afford legs.

Of course, the relative PIOPOItlOIlS-Of the various parts can be variedconsiderably, but I desirably terminate the substantially verticalhoppers or spray confining casings sufiiciently below the ceiling of theroom to permit the ready sucking of the warmed air into the same andalso desirably dispose the air exits sufficiently above the floor topermit gravity to cooperate with the pressure under which the air isemitted in effecting the distribution of the chilled air across theroom. To secure this exit pressure or velocity, I preferably space thetrough sides from the hopper or tube sides so that the total outlet areaadjacent to each spray confining tube is less than the area of the lowerend of the tube, thus causing the reduction in the effective size of theexit passages to accelerate the velocity of the emitted air.

However. I do not wish to be limited to these or other details of. theconstruction and arrangement here disclosed, it being obvious that thesame might be modified in many ways without departing from the spirit ofmy invention or from the appended claims. F or example, thecross-section of the spray tubes and the construction and arrangement ofthe spray outlets may be widely varied. though I preferably provide awide and finely divided distribution of the spray. By so doing. I amable to secure an intimate intermingling of the spray with the air and acorrespondingly efiicient ex change of heat between the brine and theair, so that my apparatus requires less brine than is required for thesame amount of cooling with the old style brine lofts. So also, mycooling apparatus can readily be adapted to rooms of any height, therebydoing away with the irregular floor levels formerly introduced intopacking house constructions by the added height of the brine lofts.

Furthermore, it will be noted that the deflectors not only provide awide air circulation across the room but also prevent such direct upwardair currents alongside the hoppers as would reduce the efficiency of thecooling system. Likewise, the return air currents in passing below theceiling timbers prevent the condensation of moisture on the ceilingwhich has been so common and objectionable with the brine loft systemsas heretofore in use.

I claim as my invention:

1. A room cooling apparatus comprising a substantially vertical tubedisposed at a considerable distance from the walls of the room andhaving open'ends disposed at considerable distances respectively fromthe floor and from the ceiling, means for directing a diverging spraydownwardly into the tube, drip catching means disposed below the tubeand freely housing the extreme lower end of the tube at opposite sidesthereof, and air deflectors respectively overhanging the drip catchingmeans atopposite sides of the tube and each extending obliquely upwardfrom the adjacent side of the tube and decreasing in inclination awayfrom the tube.

2. A room cooling unit comprising an upwardly open trough, asubstantially vertical tube depending at its lower end into the troughand having its lower end freely spaced from the sides of the trough,means for producing downward suction of air through the tube and coolingthe air while passing through the tube, air deflectors extendinglaterally from the trough and overhanging the said trough sides andfreely spaced from the latter, and guards. extending parallel to thetrough sides laterally out ward of the air deflectors.

3. A room cooling unit comprising an up wardly open trough, asubstantially vertical tube depending at its lower end into the troughand having its lower end freely spaced from the sides of the trough,means for producing downward suction of air through the tube and coolingthe air while passing through the tube, air deflectors extendinglaterally from the trough and overhanging the said trough sides andfreely spaced from the latter, and guards extending parallel to thetrough sides laterally outward from the tube beyond both the airdeflectors and the trough sides.

4. A room cooling unit comprising an upwardly open trough, asubstantially vertical tube depending at its lower end into the troughand having its lower end freely spaced from the sides of the trough,means for producing downward suction of air through the tube and coolingthe air while passing through the tube, air deflectors extendinglaterally from the trough and overhanging the said trough sides andfreely spaced from the latter, and gu'ards extending parallel to thetrough sides, the tube, deflectors and guards all being supportedindependently of the trough to leave unobstructed openings between thetube and the trough.

Signed at Chicago, Illinois, November HAROLD M. TOOMBS.

